Sexual assault report stirs Disney World cast

Published: February 28, 2006 at 2:54 PM

Here's the story that's been roiling the Walt Disney World cast over the past couple days:

A college program cast member (they called 'em MKCPs back in my day) reported that she was raped by several men while she was walking home from a friend's apartment in the housing complex where Disney puts up the college program employees.

The Orange County Sheriff's Office is investigating and Disney said that it is cooperating with the investigation.

Don't have anything at all to add here -- it's been ages since I worked down there and I never was an MKCP. But the story's got so much buzz around the CM community, that I thought it worth mentioning here.

No flame wars in the comments, please, but if anyone has anything informative to add, feel free.

Replies (4)

Wow! I was actually thinking about doing that program and they boast about how safe it is! I wonder if it was somebody inside the complex (like they live there) because I would guess that the Disney security would be pretty tight!

There are actions like this that "stir" the Central Florida community every day. Attaching Disney's name to it is completely for the purpose of selling newspapers and ad space. No hype of this nature occurs with every other crime in the area. You will find bad people everywhere. Even at Disney. It's not their fault.

I've looked at other reports from different sources. The four men involved are part of Disney's International Program, French in ethnicity, likely working for the France pavilion at Epcot. I entertained the idea they might also be in training for work at Disneyland Paris, but I think that by now, DLP has their own CM training program. The investigation is still ongoing.

Mark Hollaman does make a point that the story could be journalistic hype--and that crime does occur on Disney property just as it does everywhere else. It's a kind of "dark Disney" facade that people sometimes portray the company in.

That said, it's still an inexcusable act. If there's anybody currently in the WDW College Program that could shed some light on the security situation at the dorms, it would certainly keep people from arriving at their own conclusions as to how safe employees are.

POSTED: 9:07 pm EST March 2, 2006UPDATED: 9:08 am EST March 3, 2006ORLANDO, Fla. -- A woman who accused a group of young men in a Disney foreign employee program of rape appears to have been a willing participant, WESH NewsChannel 2 reported.

Orange County sheriff's investigators said that a videotape surfaced showing the woman having sex with at least four men at the Gables Commons Apartments.

The woman claimed she was walking home early Sunday morning when the men attacked her.

A source has told WESH NewsChannel 2 that one of the men involved in the incident apparently videotaped the encounter, which clearly showed the woman was an active participant.